Saturday, June 9, 2012

World Oceans Day - Friday, June the 8th

Celebrating
the Oceans at Gili Lankanfushi.

Here in the Maldives the Ocean is everything; it
has provided the nation of the Maldives with food and livelihoods, and today it
fuels the economic growth of the Maldives by bringing tourism in to the
country. Maldives islands, water-sports, water-villas, diving, coral reefs and
seafood - all of that and much, much more - thanks to the Oceans. On Friday the
8th of June at Gili we celebrated the body of water that links
all of us!

From breakfast till evening the guests were invited
to participate in a variety of activities to celebrate the oceans of the
planet. In the morning guests had an option to have their breakfast in the water. Later there was an opportunity to experience scuba diving
first-hand in our blue lagoon with a diving instructor. In the afternoon,
our marine biologist took a group of enthusiastic guests on a guided snorkel
around the One Palm Island Reef, where they got to see a female Napoleon
wrasse, and whole variety of other reef fish!

At three o’clock a sand castle building competition
took place on the library beach. The best sand castle “architects” were
rewarded with a complimentary Asian buffet dinner. In the meantime another
group of guests were taken out on a complimentary sailing session with an
experienced skipper from Ocean Paradise dive centre.

In the evening marine life
enthusiasts also had a chance to attend an evening talk with our marine
biologist, where the world’s oceans and the patterns that shape the life in the
oceans were discussed.

Even the hosts of Gili Lankanfushi had a chance to
participate – a host kayak race took place in the afternoon, where Miss Fridays
Momoko and Mizuki won the race and were rewarded with Discover Scuba Diving
experiences from Ocean Paradise!

Celebrating the oceans is a great way to get
peoples attention channeled towards this incredible water body, that represents
97% of inhabitable space on the planet, and raise environmental awareness.
Thanks to all of the participants!

A late but mighty participation of our Ocean Paradise diving centre in the sand castle building competition. Well done Gail and Andrew !